Wolves
by Daze Rivers
Summary: Tamaki wants nothing more than to confess to Kyoya, but when Kyoya finds out he's not human, a relationship is the furtherest thing from this mind. It's up to Tamaki to figure things out, and Tamaki did not write two dozen confession notes to give up now!


"Kyoya," Kyoya and his dad were sitting in his dad's study. His father had hands folded in front of him and Kyoya sat up as straight as he could. He couldn't afford to look tiny behind the monolith of wood his father called a desk. "I have called you here today, because I have very important news to tell you."

This was it.

"News that will change your future and how you see the world."

Kyoya could barely contain himself. He was going to be made heir. He was sure of it. Breath in. Breath out. Stay seated.

"Kyoya, this may seem hard for you to believe, but you're youkai. Wolf youkai to be specific."

What?

Kyoya's father sighed, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes. "You're mother was a wolf spirit, it…her family owned a shrine and they were the very spirits that were meant to protect it. When it burned down…she wanted to make sure her line carried on. When I met and fell in love with her, I thought our love would endure, but she still left, as you know. This might seem surreal to you, but I assure you, this is of the utmost severity."

What? That didn't make any sense. Was his dad—Kyoya wasn't human?

"It's your last year of high school, so, like all your siblings before I decided to tell you before you went off to university. Your powers and gifts manifested when you were younger, but your true strength has yet to come. Pay attention to how you're feeling. The magic you have repressed for so long will come and rear its head. How well you deal with this will determine whether you can be heir, and whether you can remain in the human world at all."

Kyoya's mouth went slack. His eyes widened. What was going on? Was this—there was no way he could process this. The clock on the wall kept ticking, suddenly too loud and Kyoya was hyperaware of his excellent sense of smell and hearing. No. This was preposterous. But Kyoya's father looked grave, mouth in a firm line, hands clenched together. Kyoya's father sighed, unfolded his hands reached into his desk.

 _How well you deal with this will determine whether you can be heir, and whether you can remain in the human world at all._

Remain in the human world? As opposed to what? Being kicked out? Abandoned?

Kyoya sat there, opened mouth, staring at his father who had, by all accounts, went back to work. Kyoya's hair started to stand on end and the smells of leather and old books and dust and last night's soup rushed at him. They had always been there, but now they were front and centre. His world swam and Kyoya gripped onto the armrest, hard enough to hurt. He had to be steady. He had to handle this.

Kyoya stood suddenly, the chair scrapped the floor loudly, too loudly and Kyoya bowed until his head hit his father's desk. He left without a word and headed to school. He had one shot. He couldn't afford to mess this up.

 _…_ _whether you can remain in the human world at all._

n

Tamaki composed himself as he headed into class. Today was the day. He had sorted through all his feelings about his family and Haruhi and most importantly Kyoya and today was the day he was going to confess.

He'd been late to class preparing a note he'd written just for this occasion and he was going to give it to Kyoya and Kyoya was going to read it, and date him and everything was going to be okay. Well not everything, but he could worry about his family later. One step at a time.

Tamaki searched the classroom for Kyoya. Kyoya was staring resolutely at the board, eyes glazed over. He looked very obviously out of it. Tamaki clapped him on the back, almost sighing in relief when Kyoya snapped out of it.

"I've just had a rough mourning," he said, before Tamaki had even asked. It seemed perfect that they were so in sync. For once in his life, something Tamaki wanted was going to be uncomplicated.

Class started before Tamaki could give him the note, so he took his seat beside Kyoya and slid the folded up piece of paper across his desk. Kyoya crumpled it up with his free hand, not even bothering to look up. His eyes were focused on the teacher, his hand was copying down notes at lightening speed.

Tamaki had prepared for this though, he'd known Kyoya too long enough to stick all his hopes in one letter. That's why Tamaki had been late, he hadn't just prepared one. He'd prepared a dozen identical confession letters. Tamaki poked Kyoya and slid another note across the desk. Kyoya crumbled it. Tamaki poked Kyoya again, but Kyoya didn't even blink.

If he was too aggressive the teach would notice and might take the note and read it. So Tamaki decided instead of the other letters, he'd throw blank pieces of paper and eraser shaving at Kyoya until he got his attention. Kyoya didn't react. Tamaki threw an entire eraser, which bounced off Kyoya's head and hit Ayame Jōnōchi in the face. She turned to glare at him and Tamaki held up his hands and mouthed apologies.

"Is there a problem Mr. Suoh?" The teacher asked. Tamaki shock his head and smiled, his winning, charming smile. He stood up and bowed toward the teacher.

"I was simply being careless with my eraser and it accidently hit Ms Jōnōchi in the face. I wish only to apologize for this _horrible_ transgression." Tamaki looked up at the teacher and beamed. Kyoya snorted beside him. Ayame Jōnōchi continued to fume, but the teacher just looked between him and Ayame Jōnōchi.

"All right, just settle down."

Tamaki didn't settle down. He continued to throw things at Kyoya when the teacher wasn't looking. He sailed a paper airplane of his confession directly into Kyoya's head, but Kyoya merely grabbed it and ripped it apart without looking at either the paper or Tamaki.

This was getting ridiculous. Tamaki poked Kyoya from the side. Kyoya did nothing. Tamaki threw his pencil and Kyoya, without looking, caught it with his free hand. Besides the revelation that maybe Kyoya should try out for the baseball team, Tamaki wasn't making any progress and he only had two more confession letters left.

Class ended without Tamaki saying anything and as a new teacher turned started to set up. Tamaki handed Kyoya the confession letter.

"Please read it, I mean it sincerely."

Kyoya looked at him, his face expressionless except for the slight tension above his eye. Kyoya's shoulders were tense as he looked at the paper and his hands were gripping it too hard. His eyes darted around, but Tamaki kept his gaze fixed on Kyoya. Then Kyoya looked him dead in the eye, stuffed the entire thing into his mouth and ate it.

"Well that's just rude!" Tamaki said, hands on his hips. The teacher shushed him and Tamaki resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He smiled at Kyoya who smiled back. Tamaki had never wanted to punch someone so badly, but domestic violence was not on his to do list and dammit he was going to confess to and date this asshole. For some reason.

Tamaki was running out of things to throw at Kyoya so he turned to his neighbour, prepared to bat his eyes lashes and ask her for an eraser when she handed him a blank note book.

"You can use the paper at the back, I don't mind." She blushed and looked down at her work and Tamaki looked at the book and then to Kyoya. He grinned.

By the time it was lunch Tamaki still had his remaining confession letter, but had gone through the entire notebook of blank paper. Kyoya still smiled and greeted everyone, but ignored Tamaki. Tamaki linked their arms and pulled Kyoya toward the bathroom. He pushed Kyoya in and Kyoya looked around to make sure no one else was there.

"What the _fuck_ Tamaki? What do you—?"

"Please accept this letter." Tamaki reached into his bag and handed Kyoya the letter. "Don't eat this one I swear to god Kyoya…I mean…" Tamaki tried to think of something romantic. Kyoya opened and read the note. "You have inspired me so much, that I could hardly contain my joy or need to tell you about it. Truly my heart fills with—"

"This is a to do list from yesterday." Kyoya said. He handed the note back to Tamaki. Tamaki read it over and sure enough, Kyoya was right.

"Let me just check for a second," Tamaki upended his bag onto the floor and searched for the letter. Kyoya tried to look disinterested, but Tamaki could still find the amusement in his eyes. What Tamaki couldn't find was the confession letter. He turned to Kyoya, face falling. He couldn't believe this. "You ate my last confession letter."

Kyoya opened his mouth, smirked, closed his mouth and then furrowed his brows. Tamaki started at him, sitting on the bathroom floor, trying to understand how it had come to this.

"You were trying to confess to—you—I" Kyoya turned away from Tamaki and looked into the mirror. Tamaki's eyes widened and he sprung to his feet.

"Wait! I can still salvage this." Tamaki cleared his throat and came up from behind Kyoya in the mirror. He wrapped his arms around Kyoya's waist and stood on his tiptoes so he could place his chin on Kyoya's crown. "My love, you are my best friend and I am so glad that our friendship has blossomed into romance. Please, do me the honour in going out with—"

Kyoya whipped around and sort of head-butted Tamaki in the throat. Tamaki fell back on the floor, banging his head against the stall doors.

"For God's sake—"

"I'm sorry. Look," Kyoya rubbed a hand down his face. "I've received form pretty life changing news this morning alright. I…I can't date you." Tamaki's heart stopped. This was not how this was supposed to go, this wasn't it at all. Then Kyoya sighed, sat beside Tamaki on the ground and told him what had happened this morning. It was a little unbelievable, but Kyoya's face and seriousness convinced him.

"So you can't date me because…"

"Because I might not be able to live in the human world. And…I want to make sure I can."

"But you like me."

Kyoya glared at him and ran a tongue over his teeth. "Yes." Tamaki squeaked and tackled Kyoya.

"I—"

"But I can't date you because—"

"Yes." Tamaki straightened up. "That's a problem." Tamaki took a moment to gather the facts. "You said your mother came from a shrine family? And there were always dogs or maybe wolves around? Maybe one of them can turn into a person and help you figure this out. Surely there has to be some way to know you can stay human?"

Kyoya sighed, but relaxed. "I…" He ran a hand over his face again. "I didn't…yeah we can do that."

Someone else entered the bathroom and noticed them sitting on the floor, Tamaki's things haphazardly flung around them.

"I'll come back later." He said, and backed out of the washroom. Tamaki smiled to himself and nudged Kyoya with his shoulder.

"It'll be okay. I'm here for you. We'll cancel club and we can have a driver take us straight there."

"No," Kyoya shook his head. "This is something I have to do myself—"

"You don't have to always be alone Kyoya." Tamaki intertwined his fingers with Kyoya's. He wanted to kiss him, to tell him he would never be alone when Tamaki was there, but that wasn't what Kyoya needed right now.

"Then just us. We'll hire a cab or take a train or something."

"Just us." Tamaki echoed. He smiled and leaned into Kyoya. He knew he should probably eat, they had had a long day ahead of them after all. But he didn't. Tamaki just closed his eyes and tried to enjoy feeling Kyoya's many fingers in his own.

n

Tamaki would have liked to see more of the shrine. Instead of looking at the towering offering hall or the giant, carved, stone walls that surrounded the shrine ground (that wasn't normal, was it?) Kyoya headed straight to the forest behind it, walking along the stream. The trees were as thick as cars and towered over them like buildings. Something rustled deep within the forest and the leaves swayed, but there was no wind. The stream they walked along followed as smoothly as silk and was as clear as glass, but Tamaki got the feeling it would drag you down into it's depths in an instant.

Kyoya continued to walk, staring at the water, fingers looped through the belt loop on his pants. Tamaki linked their arms and pulled Kyoya close. It was getting dark suddenly. The trees kept swaying and the river kept flowing and Tamaki felt like they'd been here for hours.

Abruptly, Kyoya stopped. He titled his head back, closed his eyes and sniffed at the air.

"This is the place." He opened his eyes and whistled. Tamaki had half expected him to howl. "Please, I just have some questions." They waited in silence and Kyoya averted his eyes, shoulder's tensing.

"You don't look stupid." Tamaki said to him.

"How—"

Tamaki gave him a look. Kyoya sighed and whistled again. Tamaki could faintly hear footsteps, but he wasn't sure where they were coming from or if it was just a trick of the forest. They got louder and then suddenly Tamaki could hear where they were coming from. He turned toward the sound and saw a hulking figure step out of the forest toward them. She was over six feet tall, muscled like a boxer and dressed in a very beaten up suit that was ten years out of fashion.

"Hi." She said. She smiled. It was small, almost apologetic and when Tamaki turned to Kyoya, he saw his best friend was frozen solid.

"You…"

"Kyoya, my sweet baby."

"This is a trick." Kyoya swallowed. Tamaki looked between the two of them. Kyoya sniffed the air and stepped forward. He reached a hand out to touch the woman's shoulder, then her nose. "This…why are you…why did you leave." Kyoya's voice almost cracked. The air was thick with something, but Tamaki wasn't sure what. Kyoya shook his head, but continued on, voicing his concerns about never been able to exist as human.

"You poor thing, no darling. Yoshio got it wrong."

Tamaki nodded silently. The woman looked at him and then smacked herself in the forehead.

"My apologies, I'm Kyoya's mother, and you are…?"

"Rene Tamaki de Graintaine uh—Suoh. I'm Kyoya's boy friend—best! Best friend." Tamaki took a deep breath. Kyoya's mother smiled and nodded. Her smile was nothing like Kyoya's. Kyoya's smile was like ice, beautiful in it's own way but it could be painful, razor thin and cutting. His mother smiled like rushing water, always flowing but soft, clear.

"Kyoya, your father must have misunderstood or he misspoke. It's not that there will be anything that would cause you to _have_ to leave the human world. It's just that, you may find you don't want to stay, that you _can't_ because of your feelings, not some external source." She shook her head. She stepped closer to Kyoya and hugged him. Tamaki let go of Kyoya's arm. He'd only been separated form his own mother by a few years, for Kyoya it have almost thirteen. He couldn't imagine what was going through Kyoya's head. Tamaki would have been crying in his place.

"Is that how it was for you? When you left…" Kyoya's voice was small.

"Well…" Kyoya's mother drew away from him. "Actually I hadn't meant to be gone so long. We'd had a fight so I stormed out and went to back to the spirit world. I thought I was gone an hour, turned out to be a decade, ever since then I've been too afraid to go back. I was sure you'd hate me." Kyoya threw himself at his mother and buried his face in he chest.

"Don't leave me again."

Was Kyoya crying? Tamaki looked at the stream of water. Maybe he shouldn't be here. Maybe he should leave mother and son alone. Kyoya was probably really emotional right now and he hated other people seeing him be emotional.

"Come back with me." Kyoya said to his mother. He stepped away from his mother and wiped at his eyes. "Please." His mother only smiled and buried her hand in his hair.

"There is nothing I would want more. Yoshio will be furious though."

"I don't care."

"You've changed so little and so much." They stood, gazing at each it. It was the perfect moment and Tamaki would have hated to ruin it. He didn't _mean_ to fall into the river after all.

But he did.

Luckily, Kyoya's mom was a good swimmer.

n

Tamaki had wanted to give Kyoya some space so he hadn't brought up the matter of his confession again. It had been more than a week, but it was enough to know Kyoya was happy. Tamaki would have given anything for what Kyoya had. He knew Kyoya had already done so much for him, the least he could do was give Kyoya some space.

When Kyoya invited him over, he'd been thrilled. Tamaki had lied in bed all last night thinking about what he should do. Should he confess again? He should at least bring it up. Tamaki had dressed in the most fashionable clothes he had. He'd spent at least three hours on his hair and kept unbuttoning and then buttoning the third button on his shirt, wondering if he was showing too much skin or not enough.

When he arrived, Kyoya smiled, no longer ice, but perhaps…snow? Softer maybe. Kyoya lead Tamaki to the back and Tamaki rehearsed his speech.

"Kyoya I…" The words died on his lips as he took in the garden Kyoya had lead him too. Fresh roses had been planted, purple and white, their respective colours. The roses had been planted around them in a huge heart and Tamaki and Kyoya's names were planted in the middle. There were other additions to the garden too, towering birds of paradise and other arrangements of massive, heavy flowers that Tamaki couldn't name.

Was that a piano playing in the distance? Tamaki had known the Ootori's had had one, but he'd thought none of them could play.

 _The mother._

Tamaki turned to Kyoya. Kyoya was laughing silently behind his hand and he'd never looked more beautiful. Tamaki tackled him to the ground and ignored the pain.

"Ah!" Kyoya said. "Careful—the flowers." Tamaki laughed along side Kyoya, and buried his face in the crook of Kyoya's neck. Tamaki kicked his feet against the ground and felt Kyoya laugh against him, felt Kyoya's breath in his ear. "I wanted to apologize for ruining your confession by, you know, eating it."

Tamaki squeezed his arms around Kyoya and squealed. Then he lifted his head and kissed Kyoya.

Kyoya's lips were soft, perfect and Tamaki just stayed like that, not really sure what he was supposed to do now. Eventually he pulled away and looked down at Kyoya who was trying to conceal an ear splitting grin. Kyoya shrugged, or tried do. Tamaki kissed his forehead and then all the way down his face until he reached Kyoya's lips. Kyoya kept laughing and squirming and Tamaki couldn't believe that this was finally happening.

"You—I" Tamaki couldn't even form the words.

"I believe the words you're looking for are 'you and I are dating' which is yes. That's true." Kyoya cleared his throat, but there was no way he could feign nonchalance after this. Tamaki rested his face on top of Kyoya's and he supposed that wasn't very romantic of him, or sexy or whatever it was Tamaki was supposed to be, but it was closer. He was close to Kyoya and that's all he needed.

"Other good news is that I am still human, just youkai-touched. Basically youkai adjacent." Kyoya muttered against the side of Tamaki's face. "You can get off me now this kind of hurts."

Tamaki pushed off of Kyoya and leaped to his feet. He surveyed the garden one more time.

This was it.

Tamaki's future and how he saw the world was changing before his eyes.


End file.
